Visual Concepts (Novato, CA) Software Engineer Interview Questions
& Process

The interview process involved 3 rounds, though they skipped the second round because I did so well in the first. The first round was about 2 hours, and the third round was 4.5 hours long. Everything went great with most interviewers, except for one. The coding assessment was tough: they made me use only a text editor, gave me conflicting instructions verbally and in writing, and only gave me 1.5 hours to finish, while also interrupting me every 15 minutes. One interviewer was really unprofessional because he hadn't even read the instructions beforehand, leading to the confusing directions. Their offer was $10k less than the recruiter said I should ask for. This, combined with the difficult interview and their own incorrect answers, made me hesitant. Even though I tried to make it work and acknowledged mistakes from recruiters and the assessment process, they withdrew the offer instead of continuing. They did thank me for my feedback, though.

The hiring process was pretty quick. First, there was a chat with the recruiter. After that, I was given a take-home assignment. Then came the onsite interviews, which happened before all the pandemic restrictions. The onsite part was divided into two sections, with lunch in between. In the first section, I had to solve about five small to medium-sized coding problems. I was in a separate room by myself with a computer that had no internet access, and I had over three hours to complete it. After that, I met with two people from the team for the main interview. They reviewed my solutions and asked hypothetical questions about how I'd change them if some of the original requirements were different. It was a really nice and enjoyable experience, but it definitely required a lot of attention to detail and a good understanding of what they were looking for.

It was a 4-round process. First, a coding test in C++ focusing on OOP and data structures/algorithms. Second, a 30-minute Zoom call to discuss my background. Third, a take-home test involving Data Structures and Algorithms, implemented in C. Finally, a 3-hour test followed by a 1-hour Zoom interview where we reviewed my solutions. The interviewer was very friendly, and the whole thing went smoothly.